Hey~
We've been keeping this journal, but we haven't had ready access to the internet until today. Maybe it will set the context better. More to follow. Rock like hell
xoxox
PHS
Sunday, October 01.2006 We Jam Transit
Hey y'all! Ok, so we've played two shows. Germany is amazing. We've got so many new friends and we've only been in the country 3 days. The folks in what used to be the DDR in Eastern Germany are extremely warm and kind. We've been rolling around in usual form. Jesse and Skillet are insulting one another incessantly and Chris and I only punched each other a couple times. I have a big Geman steak on my eye and Chris will probably sing with a lisp until he gets that tooth fixed. We are on the autobahn heading for Wesel. Seen a few nasty accidents. You can fly but, when the wrecks happen they seem to be pretty substantial. Our show last night in Wrendenhagen was recorded for a possible live record for Blue Rose (our European label).
Left Pension Sylvia an hour late this morning. We were up way too late again. Need to be getting a little more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night but, the club owners and a group of friends want us to stay up drinking all night. Who are we to refuse Deutschland's hospitality?
To sum it up for now......2 great shows...... 200 new stories......50 new friends.....already too many beers to count.....
Marc.
Tuesday, October 03.2006
It's 3:20 pm in Germany and it's raining like hell on the autobahn. We have our first drive today that should be less than 7 hours, but it remains to be seen as we're only moving at 30Km/H. Night before last we played in a youth center called JZ Karo in Wesel. We had a great time there and headed out early the next morning for Langenau where we played in a restaurant called Cafe Kapilio. It's owned by a wonderful couple named Dimitrius and Colleen(sp?). The people in this country have a vast propensity for hospitality. All of the sets we've played have been 2 hours+ and, combined with the lack of opportunity for a full night's sleep thusfar, my voice is taking a pretty good beating. I like to think of it as growing pains though. As good of a time and tour as we're having, I am still just as homesick as I can be. I miss my family and I wish they could be here with us, but I guess that's why it's called a "working band". We're listening to The Shins "Chutes Too Narrow". We've also listened to Faces, Bash and Pop, PJ Harvey, The Jayhawks, "Children of Nuggets",some really cool compilation CD's our good friend Woody in Charleston made us for the trip, and the new record Goner is working on right now. Once again they have knocked it right out of the park. We have a lot of stories already, but I have to say, the strangest or creepily funniest one so far is a story I like to call "Why I Washed My Hands and Why I'm Still Washing Them" We were staying in a Pension (B&B) and Marc and I were sharing a room while JJ and Skillet had their own rooms. JJ's room was the only one with a phone, so I went in there to call home. There was no dialtone when I picked up the receiver so I traced the phone line and it was plugged in behind a wardrobe. When I pulled the wardrobe out a little to make sure that the phone line was plugged in, I saw a piece of fabric (two actually) pushed in between the cabinet and the wall. I picked up the black piece (a black, satin teddy, it turns out) and held it up to show JJ who said "Well, it looks like someone had a good time in this room. I wonder why they left it behind the wardrobe?" I had also seen what I thought was a TV Guide sort of booklet back there (the TV was next to the wardrobe) so I thought "let's see what Germany's got on the tube". With God as my witness, I will never look behind another piece of furniture in a hotel room as long as I live. What I thought might be a TV Guide turned out be a publication entitled "Transexual XXXcite" or something to that effect. I try not to be judgemental about other people's choices when they aren't hurting anyone, but let me tell you, what I saw on the cover of that magazine made me want to poke out my mind's eye. It may well haunt my dreams for years to come. Looking on the bright side though, at least it was in JJ's room instead of mine.
Chris.
Wednesday, October 4 2006
Well we finally got online for the first time yesterday but, did not have a chance to post a blog. Leaving Heilbronn for the Netherlands......one of the best times we've ever had on the road. The Deutsche are too kind. Our label is based in Heillbronn so our label guy, Edgar, helped us get some stuff done. On the way to Wesel Monday Chris bashed a construction warning barrier with our drivers' side mirror. We stopped at a store and bought a shaving mirror to tape on there for a couple days. This morning Chris and Skillet went to the dealership to get a mirror and Edgar took me to the doctor. I awoke yesterday with bronchitis. My voice held out for the show which I was really worried about. We'll see how it works tonight. Jesse slept thru the mornings activities even after being kicked by Chris. We decided if the kick test didn't work we would let him sleep. It was strange going to the doctor with Edgar. The doctor didn't speak English so Edgar had to go in with me and translate. It was like having your dad take you to the doctor as a kid. Thankfully, for Edgar and me, I had bronchitis, not a hernia. We would probably have a hard time looking each other in the eye afterwards.
As with everyone else here, Edgar was too kind. Listening to The Clash headed towards Deventer in a rainstorm. Chris is giving us his usual white knuckle exhibition. He's asking what we want him to break off the van next. Jesse's soul-crushing hangover prevented him from his driving shift. A couple of gallons of Deutsche bier and a couple shots of Uzo will do it to anyone. Auf Wiedersehen for now........
Marc.
Thursday, October 5 2006
1:26pm
We're arriving in Amsterdam. I've never been here before, but I've heard that it's made almost entirely of weed. I'm talking about marijuana people. Marijuana houses. The streets are paved with it. Cobblestoned. We just passed 4 or 5 chickens on the side of the road. They were made out of pot. I think we all just caught a contact buzz driving in. I can't wait to check out the Van Gogh museum. This will be the first show we've played that starts later than 10pm.
Chris
2:31pm
OK, apparently I was misled. Amsterdam is not made out of weed. There are however some amazingly cool looking buildings, more beautiful people than you can count, and about a million bicycles. Driving is challenging to say the least. I think I just started freaking out a little. Last night we played in a club in Deventer. I don't know how to spell or pronounce Dutch words, but Albert, Boscau, Yoris, Eric, Will, and Albert (there were 2) were very gracious and we had a wonderful time.
Chris
7:31 pm
Friends, countrymen, lend me your eyes!
Thought I'd get in on this blog thing before Marc and Chris hogged it all. Sitting in our (uncommonly small) hotel room in Amsterdam after getting some dinner, a few beers and a healthy contact buzz in a hash bar/internet cafe. It's a bit cold and rainy here, but it truly is a beautiful city (except if you have to drive in it, in which case, it's a lot like Frogger--cars, buses, scooters, pedestrians, about a million bikes and some of the narrowest streets I've ever seen.) Chris was kind enough to swap driving shifts with me yesterday, as I had proceeded to get horribly, horribly drunk in Heilbron the night before. Sleep has been hard to come by since we've been over here--we like to stay up late and have a good time (i.e.-drink a lot of beer...) as it is, but when you're in a foreign country hanging out with the kind of sweet, hospitable, honest-to-goodness decent folks that we've had the good fortune to meet, it's hard to refuse that third shot of ouzo, even when you know you've got to drive 550 km the next day. We mostly played smaller towns in Germany (Lauchhammer, Wredenhagen, Langanau), where the novelty of being a band from America is enough to lure every last person to the venue, which is perfectly fine by us. Even though Heilbron and Wesel were bigger cities by comparison, the venues we played in were still on the smaller club side, so 50-75 people make it look full. Regardless of crowd size, everyone has been so friendly and receptive and we've been selling the shit out of our merch (not to sound materialistic, but we gotta eat...) Last night in Deventer was awesome--more super-cool folks diggin' the Patty sound. On a completely separate, but vastly important note, like Chris said earlier, NEVER LOOK BEHIND THE BUREAU IN YOUR HOTEL ROOM. I may need to start therapy upon my return to the States. So, tonight we rock Amsterdam and then off to Den Haag tomorrow and the UK after that. It already feels like we've been over here for a month and the homesickness is definitely kicking in, but in true Patty fashion, we're having a blast no matter how soul-crushing our hangovers may be.
Jesse
8:07pm
About an hour ago, we were sitting in a restaurant waiting for our dinner and I looked up just as Skillet said "That's David fucking Johansson!" I grabbed my camera and ran out into the street. David's lovely companion was kind enough to take a photo of him and myself standing in the rain on a cobblestoned street in front of a cafe in central Amsterdam. I am now freaking out.
Chris
8:55pm
I think they sell weed here, but I'm not entirely sure as I've only been smoking hash. I'll find out later.
Off to the club and to meet our friend Jan the Lazyman for a beer before the gig. More later, I'm covered in ants and I have a bad feeling that I'm going to try and make the band play "Box of Rain" tonight.
SG
Saturday, October 7 2006
12:43 am
So, we had our biggest Spinal Tap moment yesterday. After averaging 400-500 km drives in Germany every day, we have been completely freaked out by the fact that it takes us 30-40 mins to get from one city to the next in the Netherlands. The downside is that our GPS seems to be partaking of the local pasttimes and is completely useless in this country. We've dubbed it Lisa, as in Prince's erstwhile compatriots, Wendy and Lisa ("Is the water warm?" "Yes, Lisa." "Shall we begin???") She speaks with a British-tinged-with-German accent (i.e.-the Global Positioning Seductress) and, for the most part, gets us where we need to go with swift, orderly efficiency. An example of typical Lisa-speak would be, "Carry on forward for three hundred kilometers." or "Take the second exit from the roundabout in 700 meters." For some reason, however, she is absolutely verklempt in Holland. Case in point, yesterday we arrived in Amsterdam at roughly 1:00 pm after a 40 minute drive and then spent and hour driving around trying to find our hotel. But even better (and here's where we enter "Smell the Glove" territory), we left our hotel at 8:45 to get to the club by nine and, trusting in dear, sweet Lisa, proceeded to drive around the city for two fucking hours. We stopped to ask directions five times and each time we got a different version of how we should get to our destination. We ended up miles and miles and miles away from the club and were none the wiser because, well, we've never been to Amsterdam before (and the streets are fucked up!!!) After two hours of clueless driving (and almost having a head-on collision with a tram after I turned the wrong way down a one way street), we called the club and got the answering machine. Skillet then called our friend, Jan the Lazyman and he told us to go back to the hotel and he would guide us in. When we finally made it to our hotel, Jan informed us that we could in fact, 'grab our guitars and walk to the club' (they have a drum kit and several amps on site.) "Walk to the club???" Are you fucking kidding me??? Now they tell us... So with Jan as our guide, we grabbed our guitars and walked through a torrential downpour (it's been raining pretty much non-stop since we arrived in the Netherlands) to arrive at the club thoroughly soggy and two and a half hours late. Fortunately, the people that we dealt with there were very kind and forgave us our tardiness in a most gracious fashion. It was a bit like playing Sadlack's (not that there's anything remotely wrong with that) and we had a good time and made some more friends. Tonight we played in Den Haag. Man, this club was pro as hell--huge stage, swanky green room, stage hands to load and unload our gear, stage managers, rooms full of light gels, etc. Sadly for us, though, there were twenty people there to see us in a room that could comfortably hold 300. Oh well, we sold some merch and had a really good time, so whatever. Now we're eating the rest of our green room food and drinking the last of our beers before getting some much needed sleep. Tomorrow we head to Calais for our one and only day off--despite the constant fun and shenanigans, we are all really looking forward to doing a whole lot of nothing before heading to the UK.
So, good night and farewell for now. May angels sing us to our rest.
Jesse
Bass Player, Stunt Driver
11:30am
We are on the way to Calais. I'm not sure why, but Holland has been very stressful for us and the tension is a bit high here and there. I don't think JJ has ever gotten used to the way Marc and Skillet and I fight with each other. It's rarely bad (almost never) and we're just blowing off steam, but I know it can be hard to relax around that kind of bullshit. Hopefully today's trip will go a little more smoothly than the past few days and we'll have a chance to rest some. It seems like every time we think we're going to have a couple of hours to chill, something comes up that has to be taken care of or there are transportation issues that rob us of the time. I've been singing so much that my back, chest, and abs are sore as hell. I would like everyone to know that we have behaved very politely and low key whilst in Germany and Holland, but I damn sure saw plenty of Americans getting their jackass on in Amsterdam. Everyone we've dealt with has been really nice to us, but I have this constant feeling that I need to apologize to them for the US government. It was bad enough the last time I was here and everyone thought I supported Jesse Helms because I'm from NC. The current executive administration of the US is just downright embarassing. I write letters, I make phone calls, I send emails, but folks here don't seem to understand how difficult it is to make a difference at the top of the US governmental hierarchy from my house, or the huge sway the media holds over the vast majority of the American people. They seem to think that because our government has continued with the current occupation, the American people must be in agreement, or at least contrite. The folks at the club last night were really great. Many thanks owed to Majel, Claudia, Peter, Rudy, Micheal, Seljin, and Quest. Listening to The Pixies, Tom Petty, GBV, Dan Baird, and QOTSA. We're in Belgium. Thusfar I've taken almost 360 photos and I'm on my last roll of film. I've had a hard time finding b&w film here. Hopefully there will be some in Calais as we take ferry to Dover tomorrow morning and will see the White Cliffs of Dover. I definitely want to have film on hand for that. I was working the 35mm lens from the van windows early on, but I've since come back to the 50mm to get my "art" on. Raymond, that Delta 3200 may be killer, but my camera's fastest ASA setting is 1600, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it turns out. Luckily, I mostly brought HP5 400 which I've also been shooting at 1600. I've forgotten almost everything I thought I knew about shooting film. I've been using a YG filter during the day to help keep from frying the 3200 and also to cut down on the glare and dirt from the van windows cause one of them doesn't open properly. It might be throwing off my sense of contrast, but maybe it'll be ok. Marc and Skillet smoked a big ol' cone this morning because we don't know what the Belgian and French laws are regarding weed and Skillet needed to get rid of it. They are so high, they will be stoned across 3 countries. This is truly a PHS first.
Chris.